I did finally (I think) sort out my clutch spacing issues. Andy at specialty managed to dig up a short TO bearing collar for me, and now my clutch fork sits in the middle of the window when the zx transmission is installed. So hopefully this will work when installed! I'm just crossing my fingers that I haven't screwed something else up that ended up causing the clutch to slip last time.
James has been working away today on my oil pan. After installing the reversed front crossmember, the big futofab bar wouldn't fit between the oil pan and the member. James has been working on notching the pan so that the bar will fit. Still a work in progress, and I was a bit negligent on making proper measurements for fitment, but I think this should do the trick.
I have been in touch with flex form about rear springs. I'm going with a 1.5" rear drop so that I don't have to worry about diff slap (I hope). Mark suggested a 215lb spring would be close enough to the front 225s and would help make sure I get down to the 1.5" drop. So these are in progress, hopefully done within the month. I have a futofab rear bar to match the front, and now just need to work on sourcing good shocks. If anyone has any recommendations, I'm all ears - it seems a bit difficult to figure out the right shock length with a lowered wagon, especially with the increased spring rate. I have tokico blues in the front, hopefully these will be ok to match my front springs, I wouldn't be surprised if I have to go adjustable all the way around to get things working well. But a shock length in the rear will get me started.
Other jobs include getting a shorter throttle cable (the later 200sx one was too long), I will order an early 80s one. It would be nice to find the same generation (z20) 200sx gas pedal if there is one out there, but I've had no luck. I can make the later 200sx pedal work, it's just jury rigged for now and not as ideal as the earlier one. I don't suppose anyone has an extra late 70s/early 80s 200sx pedal assembly kicking around unused....
I'm debating still on colors. I had been thinking about doing a z color, either a sky blue metallic that my dad had on his old 280z that probably got me hooked on datsuns in the first place, or a green. Not sure whether either of these pop enough. I kind of like some of the more modern metallic colors that are on newer cars but am not sure they really fit the car. And I've been reluctant to pick a stock code. So I'm probably driving Mike crazy, just not as nuts as if I actually go with Honda fit orange

Futofab fender fitment:
Color options:
I have been having a few second thoughts about my diesel project lately with all the bad diesel news out there, especially owning one of the affected vw TDIs. That said, these old diesels have always been pretty dirty and my main goal was fuel economy and being able to used a reccyled fuel source on this car with a veggie conversion. I do live in east van so maybe down the road I can design my own urea injection system using urine to get my NOx down, it would be very hipster.

I'm looking forward to getting paint on and starting the reassembly process, won't be too long now. I've been debating whether the take the engine apart at all and have it looked at, but given the budget isn't infinite I think I'll clean it up a bit and see how things go once it's back in, it may need reworking down the road. I managed to get a full gasket set from ebay UK, and I'm just working on sourcing the right water pump, it's a bit tricky without having a clear model of vehicle this came from. Here's hoping I can get the right one!
More to come as things get pieced together more.
Jon